Scott's descriptions and interpretations of the rich visual material at her disposal are informative and often entertaining. She deftly leads the reader on a trip through six-and-a-half centuries of dress and fashion history by means of the images and words of the manuscripts she has chosen principally, but not exclusively, from holdings of the British Library, the publisher of the book. She invites the reader into this world through her acute and detailed visual observations, thus opening our eyes to the value of this aspect of our understanding and documentation of the past.Early in the book, Scott points out the intimate connection between dress and cultural beliefs. In the San Callisto Bible Charles the Bald Charles the Bald, French king: see Charles II, emperor of the West. (King of the Western Franks 840-77 and Emperor 875-77) and his bodyguards are shown dressed in Frankish-style clothing as a sign that they were the Chosen People, but after his coronation in Rome, as related by the chronicler of the Annales Fuldenses, Charles repudiated the Frankish connection in favor of the Greek (Byzantine) and dressed accordingly to express this. But there seems to be no visual record of this change. One looks in vain for some explanation or suggested interpretation of this point.